Paul Ryan in 2012 Republican National Convention speeches

On Budget & Economy:
FactCheck: S&P downgraded U.S. due to Congress, not Obama

Ryan attacked Pres. Obama for the S&P downgrade of the U.S.'s credit rating in 2011: "It began with a perfect Triple-A credit rating for the United States; it ends with a downgraded America." That's a pretty standard attack for Mitt Romney, but look at
who the S&P blames in its statement:

"Our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in
Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act."

S&P downgraded the US, in part, because of a revised expectation that the Bush tax cuts would remain in place.
They assumed this because of Republicans' unwillingness to enact any measures raising revenue, and they completely slammed House Republicans--including Paul Ryan--for doing so.

In this generation, a defining responsibility of government is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is still time. Back in 2008, candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt unpatriotic. Serious talk from what looked like a
serious reformer. By his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him. And more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president, one term, $5 trillion in new debt.

So here we are,
$16 trillion in debt and still he does nothing. In Europe, massive debts have put entire governments at risk of collapse, and still he does nothing. And all we have heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who dares to point out the
obvious. They have no answer to this simple reality: We need to stop spending money we don't have.

Very simple. Not that hard. Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation's economic problems.

Source: 2012 Republican National Convention speech
Aug 29, 2012

On Corporations:
Stimulus was political patronage & corporate welfare

Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years? The first troubling sign came with the stimulus. President Obama's first and best shot at fixing the economy. At a time when he got everything he
wanted under one-party rule. It cost $831 billion. The largest one-time expenditure ever by our federal government. It went to companies like Solyndra, with their gold-plated connections, subsidized jobs and make believe markets.
The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare anachronism at their worst.

You, the American people, were cut out of the deal. What did taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus?
More debt. That money wasn't just spent and wasted, it was borrowed, spent and wasted.

Source: 2012 Republican National Convention speech
Aug 29, 2012

On Foreign Policy:
Speak with clarity instead of managing American decline

In our dealings with other nations, a Romney-Ryan administration will speak with confidence and clarity. Whenever men and women rise up for their own freedom, they will know that the American president is on their side.

Instead of managing American decline, leaving allies to doubt us and adversaries to test us, we will act in the conviction that the United States is still the greatest force for peace and liberty that this world has ever known.

Source: 2012 Republican National Convention speech
Aug 29, 2012

On Government Reform:
End the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners

Listen to the way we are spoken to, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with government there to help us cope with our fate. It's the exact opposite of everything
I learned growing up in Wisconsin, or at college in Ohio.

Now when I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life.
I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey, where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself. That is what we do in this country. That is the American dream.
That's freedom and I will take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.

Source: 2012 Republican National Convention speech
Aug 29, 2012

On Health Care:
ObamaCare's mandates & fines have no place in a free country

Here we were faced with a massive job crisis so deep that if everyone out of work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent. You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make
job creation and nothing else his first order of economic business, but this president didn't do that. Instead, we got a long, divisive, all or nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care.

ObamaCare comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free country. You know what?
The president has declared that the debate over government controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of American who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obama Care.

Source: 2012 Republican National Convention speech
Aug 29, 2012

On Health Care:
Protect Medicare as an obligation to grandparents

The biggest, coldest power play of all in ObamaCare came at the expense of the elderly. You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with the new law and new taxes on nearly a million small businesses, the planners in
Washington still didn't have enough money; they needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So they just took it all away from Medicare, $716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama.

An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn't even ask for. The greatest threat to Medicare is Obama Care and we're going to stop it.

Medicare is a promise and we will honor it. A Romney-Ryan Administration with protect and strengthen Medicare for my mom's generation, for my generation and for my kids and yours.

Source: 2012 Republican National Convention speech
Aug 29, 2012

On Jobs:
12M new jobs by capping federal spending at 20% of GDP

After four years of government trying to divide up the wealth, we will get America creating wealth again. With tax fairness and regulatory reform, we'll put government back on the side of the men and women who create jobs, and the men and women who need
jobs.

We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years. In a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at
20% of GDP, or less. Because that is enough.

The choice--the choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of
government, and we choose to limit government.

Source: 2012 Republican National Convention speech
Aug 29, 2012

On Principles & Values:
Lives now on same block in Janesville where he grew up

My dad, a small town lawyer, was also named Paul. I'm sure proud of him and where I come from, Janesville, Wisconsin.

I live on the same block where I grew up. We belong to the same parish where I was baptized. Janesville is that kind of place.
The people of Wisconsin have been good to me. I've tried to live up to their trust. And now, I ask those hardworking men and women and millions like them across America to join our cause and get this country working again.